I was hunting in Montana in one of our favorite spots that after a while you realize are several people’s favorite spots. As the sun was coming up and I was anticipating elk on every hill when there came a hunter to the location where we were standing. This happens every so often and generally I do not mind, but it makes hunting a little harder and if an elk comes by the question of who got it is more of a problem. As the man came to rest among us, we learned he was a 75-year-old man from New York. He was a machinist and a dairy farmer most of his life and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He asked what I did and I told him I was a pastor and a retired police officer. He asked what church, and I said a Baptist Church. He then said I have been a Baptist deacon for over 40 years. We then became much warmer as we shared the same campfire, and he told me how he came to Jesus Christ in the jungle of Vietnam. He said he looked around and realized that he might not be coming home from this war and said he had better get his soul in order to meet the Lord, so he heard the gospel and gave his life to Christ in a war-torn country. It turns out he had no elk tag, just a wolf tag. He was a hunter hunting the hunters. He had a sniper rifle with him, after it was clear there were no elk close, I watched him hit a rock the size of a paper plate at 708 yards.
I realized that Mr. Clark was a remarkable man in that he had lived through battle had come home and raised a family and served the Lord all his life and enjoyed being with other believers. He was a veteran of many things. He served the Lord in wartime and in peacetime. When times were bad, He fled to the Lord and when times are good, he thanked the Lord. He has worked hard and is enjoying the fruit of his labor.
There is only one way to live this way and that is being consistent with following the Lord all the days of your life. He got into a good church and served and gave and led where he could. You cannot be a veteran Christian without the body of Christ helping you. He learned that survival in Vietnam was impossible without a team and in the spiritual life it is impossible to make it without a team, the Bible calls the church. Happy Veteran’s Day church! Pastor Mark